• No one likes to talk about grievances. 
• No one likes to be part of a grievance situation. 
• No one likes to have a question levied at them. 
• No one assumes that a grievance can be remedied easily. 

I am guessing that a majority of people would be in agreement with those basic statements about grievances… right?  But what would be the resulting statements if this TRIPLE III TIME message tried: 

Pulling “Positives” From Grievances 

Make no mistake… I have avoided this professional development topic from the very beginning of my blog experience.  Was I asked multiple times by colleagues to toss out a few comments and suggestions about dealing with grievances… yes… but some things have a way of returning as an uncertain “priority”!  So here goes!! 

I have always chosen the continuous improvement path as a leader when dealing with grievances.  From my early director days I very clearly chose to encourage client/customers to file a grievance if they thought it was needed.  The gang that worked with me was instructed to support the grievance process as they worked with the people we serviced.  This proactive position with regard to grievances served our organization very well and almost deferred grievance filings. 

However, when a significant grievance was received, it was given immediate Director-level attention.  In-person meetings were conducted and more prompt resolutions were achieved and always contained a two-sided corrective action(s) outcome.  This meant that not only did our organization identify things we needed to do better…but also improvement actions to be addressed by the client-customer were included.  Heightened personal responsibility…and co-corrective actions were the standard Pulling “Positives” From Grievances results. 

Bottomline:  Can I report that our organization was fortunate to have very, very few full grievances…yes!  But did it require an always open mind to hearing every side of a problem…YES!  Pulling “Positives” From Grievances almost has to be a “culture-priority” in your workplace.  I found it to be worth the effort.